BOBBY KENNEDY FOR PRESIDENT
Netflix, Ed Hall, and the story behind "Corrosion of the Masses"
One day-glo night with Ed Hall inspired a guitar riff which inspired a piece of music which inspired an editor to drop it into a cut for an audience to experience.
It was kind of surreal when, in 2017, I received a call from Dawn Porter, the director and executive producer for the Netflix series Bobby Kennedy For President. She was requesting clearance for the rights to the track “Corrosion of the Masses,” off the grassy knoll’s 1996 album Positive, to use as the main title sequence for the series. Andrew Young, the editor in charge of cutting the main title sequence—who is a fan of the grassy knoll’s music—had used the piece as a temporary track while the design studio Elastic worked on the graphics (Elastic was also the design team behind the main title sequence for True Detective). After countless playbacks during the edit and design stage, “Corrosion of the Masses” resonated with Porter and her team, and the track stuck. Twenty-one years after the track was recorded, the music was going to be heard by a brand new audience. It was an exciting turn of events, and I was honored to be included in this historic documentary series.
BACKSTORY
In 1995, while living in San Francisco, I was in full-on-work mode trying to finish up the second the grassy knoll album Positive. The previous year had been a really good one. My debut album the grassy knoll was released on the Vancouver label Nettwerk and several months later it was picked up by Polygram’s affiliate label Verve/Antilles and re-released with two additional tracks. There was a bit of pressure coming from the label to deliver a follow-up album but I was feeling confident about my creative process. The newer tracks were more developed, assembled with a clearer vision, and executed with more intent than the debut release.
When I’m feeling creative I find myself listening to a lot of music. Inspiration comes from others and to quote
from his book Steal Like an Artist, “Your job is to collect good ideas. The more good ideas you collect, the more you can choose to be influenced by.”One night, I went out to see the band Ed Hall perform at a small club on Upper Haight Street. Having seen them live a few times before, I knew I was in for some weird-sweaty fun. Ed Hall was an explosively entertaining three-piece band from Austin, TX, featuring Lyman Hardy (drums), Larry Strub (bass), and Gary Chester (guitar). Their we-don’t-give-a-damn live shows in the early 90’s were raw, humorous, and down n’ dirty. On some occasions, they would perform covered in day-glo paint, which made for a menacing psychedelic presence. Musically, they were a little more refined than their Trance Syndicate label mates Butthole Surfers, but spiritually, they were kindred spirits.
That night, after watching Ed Hall’s testosterone-fueled set, I fired up the studio and plugged the Les Paul into a Marshall JMP-1. Trying my best to channel Chester’s unique style, a dissonant heavy riff emerged. The guitar riff had that similar weighted-down feel of their track “Leave Me Alone” off the 1993 release Motherscratcher. This new riff became the foundation and catalyst for the track “Corrosion of the Masses.”
The components that make up “Corrosion of the Masses” are guitar, bass, drum loops, mellotron flute, a pad sample loop, bass clarinet, and the soul of the track—trumpet, beautifully played by Chris Grady. On many of the grassy knoll recording sessions live drums would be tracked to sonically embellish the groove; but on this track, I decided to keep the drum loops as they were, on their own. The loops seemed to define the behind-the-beat characteristics of the riff, and I liked the nonchalant understated heaviness they possessed. For the final touch, Jonathan Byerly added sparse bass clarinet lines during the break, which sit behind the mix and add a gorgeously foreboding quality to the music.
I’m really proud of “Corrosion of the Masses” but when I received that call from Dawn Porter it surprised me that it was the chosen music for the main title sequence. I’ve always thought of it as my least visual collage of sounds, henceforth, the least likely choice for a placement. But—just as in the state of creating music—there is an opportunity, if you are open, to hear something outside of yourself not because of yourself. Once I heard “Corrosion of the Masses” with fresh ears, accompanied by Elastic’s gorgeous images, I was moved. It was beautiful. It resonated.